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If you plan a trip to Israel, top on your list is a visit to the sacred city of Jerusalem, second should be a visit to Masada. You can combine a visit to Masada along with the Dead Sea, but plan on a few hours to capture the spirit and understand what happened here, so many hundreds of years ago.
High on a hill overlooking the arid desert, you see the Dead Sea in the distance, with its’ turquoise color shimmering in the sunlight. Masada, truly a place of magnificence coupled with a history of evil, death and destruction – a sacred place of opposites.
The relics and artifacts pull you into “their story” and truly allow you to empathize with those caught in the horror – gripping at your heart, that upon leaving you do so in silence … the only sounds are those of the constant gleeful chatter of newly arrived travelers who are just beginning their venture to Masada.
Their story
The palace and fortress at Masada was built by King Herod the Great between 37 and 31 BCE, to protect him from his enemies and external forces. If anything happened in Jerusalem, he could flee and live out his days at Masada.
Many years after King Herod’s death, at the beginning of the great revolt against Rome in the year 66 CE, a group of Jewish Zealots fled Jerusalem as the Romans were ordered to kill them. They took refuge in Masada. They were joined by another group of Zealots after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. The Roman Army were determined to defeat this last outpost and marched to Masada in 73 CE, where they built army camps around the base. They used Jewish slaves to build a wall around Masada, and a ramp against the western side. Once the ramp was completed, they built a battering ram to destroy Masada’s wall.
When the Romans finally marched into Masada, they found it empty.
The 960 Jewish Zealots living at Masada decided they would rather kill themselves than see their wives raped and their family members become slaves. On the last night the Zealot leader Eleazar ben Ya’ir gathered everyone together and shared his plan. They burned the fortress and committed mass suicide.
The men killed their wives and children and cast lots to choose 10 men to kill those who remained. One last man killed the nine others and then himself. What is haunting at the site is to actually see the lots that were drawn, encased and protected, but you as a visitor can feel the emotion of what had to transpire, the men drawing lots after they had killed all others – women and children – and now down to their eventual death.
It is a story of bravery and Israel Inductees to the Israeli Defense Forces take an oath at Masada, chanting; “Masada shall not fall again.”
Visiting Masada
You can visit Masada by hiking up the Snake Path for sunrise but can take between one to two hours – the quicker and easier way is via cable car to the top. You can get many magnificent photos of the view.
There are guides at the top which I recommend, for they can show you all the ruins and explain the history. You will see some of the original wall paintings/frescoes which are well preserved. You will see store rooms for food and a Roman-style bath house with caldarium (hot bath), tepidarium (warm bath) and frigidarium (cold bath) all descending from the stone formations. The floors are mosaic and well preserved.
Herod built a sophisticated water system of dams that diverted rainwater from the two wadis west of Masada into two plastered channels that fed a group of cisterns in the northwestern slope of the rock. The cisterns in the sides of Masada can hold 10 million gallons or 40,000 cubic meters.
You will also see a model of King Herod’s impressive residence - “Northern Palace”, located on the northern edge of Masada built over three terraces with incredible views of the Dead Sea.
Once you have taken the cable car back down again, don’t forget to visit the Masada museum, where you will be given an audio guide. In the museum you can see lots of artifacts uncovered from Masada, including coins, a braid of hair, amphoras for containing food, and the broken pieces of pottery with different names written on them- supposedly the names of the Jewish rebels who drew lots to decide who would be responsible for whose death, and which person would be the last standing to die on his own sword.
Happy Travels!
April 18, 2023
